Breadcrumb trail

Police Discretion with Young Offenders

II. A Descriptive Profile

Our sample was evenly split between police services whose members said that they use the same amount of discretion with provincial/territorial offences as with Criminal Code offences, and those that said they use more discretion with provincial/territorial offences. exceptions.

There were few differences among types or locations of police services in this respect. In Alberta and Nova Scotia, 75% of police agencies indicated they used more discretion with provincial/territorial offences. Notably, officers with 6 or more years of service were much more likely to say that they use more discretion with provincial/territorial offences (70%), compared to respondents with less than 5 years experience (30%).